APPETITE, NOT DEBT, KILLED WEIL GOTSHAL
Weil, Gotshal & Manges had no debt and US$5.6 million in profit per equity partner, yet it’s winding down after more than 50 partners left for firms that paid more. In a profession that can’t find lawyers for people earning $30,000 a year, that appetite raises the question of what law is supposed to be about.
AI: Ask a Stupid Question, Get a Stupid Answer
Young lawyers who draft documents and form legal opinions by prompting AI, without ever having done the work themselves, lack the understanding to know which questions need to be asked — something AI can’t yet figure out on its own. The result: they rely on bad answers because they don’t know better, and that’s how negligence claims happen.
Survey asks: Are judges happier than lawyers?
A Canadian Judicial Council study found that judges report less than half the anxiety and depression lawyers do, and high satisfaction with their work. Marcel Strigberger’s not surprised: he concludes that considering the pay, the pension and the power, it’s good to be the judge.
THE BRUCE HOTEL, STRATFORD, ONTARIO
By Janet Carr & Julius Melnitzer | October 27, 2026 Stratford has long drawn visitors for its theatre. Jennifer Birmingham, owner of The Bruce Hotel, wants you to come for the food as well, and she has built much of the hotel around that idea, from the beehives and Chef’s Garden on its grounds to […]
Ill Winds That Blow No Good
Photo by Mike Bird at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | October 25, 2026 It is an ill wind that blows no good. – John Heywood I recently wrote what I thought was a rather nifty article about the ills in the legal profession, and concluded, as I often do, that many of them can be traced to […]
Bill C-39: Where’s the public interest test?
Apart from the employers and the unions, the people who bear the consequences have no defined way to be heard By Michelle McHale | October 17, 2026 Parliament is now debating when the federal government can step into a labour dispute without first answering a basic question: how do we know the system is working […]
Stabbing Back in the Law Firm
By Murray Gottheil | October 15, 2026 I liked some of my partners all of the time; most of my partners most of the time; and one or two, almost never. I suspect that my partners, as a group, had similar sentiments about me. The first thing to know about being a partner in a […]
Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
By Murray Gottheil | July 24, 2026 “Lead, follow, or get out of the way” is an expression which some attribute to Thomas Payne. Tommy died in 1809, so this is hardly a new turn of speech. And yet, back in my law firm (and I suspect in many others), there were partners who never came […]
The Implications of My Ice Cream Diet on Law Firm Management
By Murray Gottheil | July 14, 2026 I have been over-weight for a good long while. My wife, Maureen, is not shallow. She loves me exactly as I am. But she is smart, beautiful and talented, and her marketability far exceeds mine, so why take chances? For about 15 years, I stopped eating chocolate, cake, pie, […]
Capital punishment without the Capital
By Marcel Strigberger | July 13, 2026 While in practice, a frequent question laypeople asked me was, “Do you support capital punishment?” My answer is that I am a staunch advocate of capital punishment — as long as nobody actually gets executed. In fact, I believe this is doable. I recently watched a performance of Gilbert […]